Sunday, May 8, 2011

NEPAL IS A MAGICAL PLACE

I had the good fortune to visit Nepal twice in the last few months. On my first trip I headed to Nepal in the winter to help instruct at the Khumbu Climbing School While I was there I lined up several filming projects. I shot a short piece which I am currently editing follows Emily Harrington, and Matt Segal on their first trip to the climbing school where they are exposed to the life altering magic of the Himalayas. During this time I also shot and have now produced a short film about Pete Athans for The North Face. This will be premiering soon on The North Face Website. Finally I was Director of Photography on a shoot for Camp Four Collective where I followed the legendary Conrad Anker on an adventure to the basecamps of Pumori, Ama Dablam and Everest to retrieve memory cards from Timelapse Cameras for the Extreme Ice Survey. Last year Conrad set up several timelapse cameras to observe the glaciers and hopefully bring awareness to Global Climate Change. Camp Four will be producing a film next year about Conrad and his relationship with the Extreme Ice Survey. Hiking through the Himalays to three iconic high altitude basecamps, was an exhausting but extremely inspiring experience in Run and Gun Filmmaking.










After a month and half in Nepal I was excited to head home for a bit and spend some time with my beloved Fiance Nellie, and our Pug Gus. After a week home, Pete Athans called me up with a hard to turn down opportunity. He asked me if I'd be interested in shooting second camera on a National Geographic special about his work exploring the wild caves of the Mustang Region of Nepal. Pete has been working with Archeologists from both Nepal and the States to explore and document the wild caves in this region which house ancient pre-buddhist art and sometimes mysterious human remains. These caves are highly unique because they are often over eighty feet of the ground and only reached by technical climbing. Filming with D.P. Lincoln Else was a great learning experience gateway into my budding career as a professional camera man and filmmaker. Tragically at the end of the trip Lincoln was hit in the head by a falling rock while not wearing a helmet, and I had one of the most stark experience of recent memory, holding Lincoln in C-Spine with blood everywhere waiting for a helicopter rescue. Thankfully, though Lincoln seemed like he was a goner for sure, he has made a full recovery!!!  So to finish off this quick blog and test of my new blogging set up... let me leave you with this valuable lesson.  Wear your HELMET!!!

Cheers.  Cedar.